365x24x7

[andyring at inebraska.com (Andy Ringsmuth)]

\On Apr 18, 2011, at 7:59 AM, Aaron Wendel wrote:

> My guys work 12 hour shifts.  2 days on, 2 days off, 3 days on, 2 days off, 2 on 3 off.  The three days on is always friday-sunday so every other weekend they either have a 3 day weekend or 3 days of work.
> 
> In a pay period, with 30 minute lunch per shift it comes to 80.5 hours.  I keep my guys on the same shifts for consistancy.
> 
> Aaron

My wife is a nurse working second shift, 12-hour shifts, 7p-7a  (actually 6:45p to 7:15a to allow for a little overlap).  Her hospital has it worked out on a 6-week schedule, with Wednesdays being the new pay week.  Nurses there work 3 days a week, for 36 hours.

Here's how they do it (these are calendar weeks)

Week 1 - Su M T F Sa Su
Week 2 - W
Week 3 - M T W
Week 4 - M T F Sa Su
Week 5 - Th
Week 6 - M T


I know this is also a decades-long struggle in the railroad industry too (My business does a lot of contract work with that industry).  In particular locomotive engineers and conductors.  100 percent on-call, maximum 12-hours on duty with 10 off (recently changed from 8).  Fatigue is quite critical there too, you don't want an engineer falling asleep pulling a train full of HazMat.

For datacenter work, I'd think a schedule like the above would be doable.  You end up working every third weekend, and yes, weeks 1 and 4 aren't pleasant, it's followed by a 1-day week so you've got plenty of time to recover.



-Andy